Bunker Hill Bunny
Bunker Hill Bunny is a 1950 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng. Plot In 1776 at the "Battle of Bagel Heights", following the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Yorktown, Bugs is an American Minuteman defending a Fort against the red-coated Sam von Schamm (or Schmamm), the Hessian, defending a large stone fortress. Sam's fortress is heavily armored, bristling with artillery; by contrast, Bugs' defenses are rather pathetic, with only one cannon. Sam taunts Bugs with the boast that he has him "outnumbered, one to one" and, after a barrage of ineffective cannon fire, charges across the battleground rattling his saber. Sam's first charge involves only Sam beating a drum as if guiding troops. Once Sam arrives at Bug's fort door, a cannon emerges and shoots Sam. Clothes in tatters, Sam beats a quick retreat call on his drum and falls back to his fort, only to fire another salvo of cannon fire at Bugs. Immediately following, Sam emerges, fully clothed, holding a musket, and yells "Charge!" and charges Bugs' fort. Bugs exits his fort as well, holding a musket and yells "Charge!" as well. Both run at each other and take each other's fort. The flag over Bugs' original fort is lowered from "We" to "They" and Sam's flag of "They" is lowered to Bugs' flag "We", now shown with a carrot. Whilst Sam is tying down his flag, Bugs shouts "Yoo-Hoo, Mr. Enemy," and indicates that he has taken the fort. The changing of forts happens a second time, with the flags changing to their original owners. Sam charges a third time, but Bugs does not. Running into the barrel of a large cannon, Sam attempts a swift retreat, only to be blasted back into his own fort. Running out of the fort, Sam yells, "You ornery, flea-bearing rebel, you'll pay for this!" He takes out a circular bomb, lights it, and throws it towards Bugs' fortress. Bugs runs inside and emerges wearing a baseball uniform and carrying a bat. Bugs hits the bomb away towards Sam's fort. Taking out a baseball mitt, Sam runs backwards, yelling "I got it! I got it!" The bomb explodes in the base, with a white flag being hoisted on the flag pole, proclaiming, "He Got It!" Sam then threatens Bugs that he will "Blow him to smithereenies", to which Bugs replies, "Ah! Your brother blows bubble gum!" Sam, enraged, loads a Spigot Mortar and fires at Bugs. Bugs catches the mortar round in his own cannon and fires it back, yelling "Eh, that's the old pepper boy!", imitating a catcher. Sam fires the cannon a second and third time to the same effect, with Bugs firing back jeers on each volley. The third time, a stopper is shot after the cannonball, which Sam pulls off - only to be shot when his own cannon self-ignites. Frustrated, Sam burrows his way underground into Bugs' base using a pickaxe. Upon surfacing, Sam lights a match, only to find that he has miscalculated and emerged in a munitions shack full inside his own fortress. The explosives detonate, leaving Sam stumbling out, dazed. As a last gambit, Sam attempts to use a keg of gunpowder to blow up Bugs' base; due to a hole in the keg, gunpowder falls into the backside of Sam's pants. After Sam lights the fuse and departs, unknowingly leaving a powder trail, Bugs, sitting on the powder keg and munching a carrot, calmly extinguishes it and nonchalantly lights Sam's gunpowder trail in return. Sam attempts to evade his impending fate by running out of his fortress and up an apple tree, only to have the tree's crown explode on him. Beaten and worn out, Sam states, "I'm a Hessian, without no aggression. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Defeated, he joins Bugs in a fife-and-drum march. Censorship * The second last sequence, involving Sam digging underground to ambush Bugs' fortress, only to end up in a dynamite shack that blows up when he lights a match to see, was removed when aired on ABC's The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show. Notes * Most of this cartoon was used in the TV Special, Bugs Bunny: All American Hero. * The gag of an opponent of Bugs yelling "I got it, I got it, I got it!" and then a sign reading "He Got It" was previously used in "Baseball Bugs". * When Bugs' switches forts, the green WE flag has a carrot under it every time the fort is switched. Availability * VHS - A Salute to Friz Freleng https://vimeo.com/129627993 * LaserDisc - Bugs Bunny: Hare Beyond Compare: 14 More Bugs Bunny Classics * VHS - Yosemite Sam's Yeller Fever * VHS - Looney Tunes Collection - Yosemite Sam * VHS - Mil-Looney-Um 2000 - Bumper Collection * VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Vol. 9: A Looney Life * DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc Four (1998 dubbed version) * DVD - Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 1, Disc Two (1998 dubbed version) * Streaming - Boomerang App (1998 dubbed version) See Also *List of Bugs Bunny cartoons References External Links * * Bunker Hill Bunny at The Big Cartoon DataBase * Bunker Hill Bunny at B99.TV * Bunker Hill Bunny at SuperCartoons.net * [https://sfx-resource.fandom.com/wiki/Bunker_Hill_Bunny_(1950) Bunker Hill Bunny] on the SFX Resource Category:1950 Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons Category:Yosemite Sam Cartoons Category:Shorts Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Bugs Bunny Friz Freleng Category:Cartoons with layouts by Hawley Pratt Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Paul Julian Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer